Washington

BOLSTER, Levi J.

Encyclopedia Vermont Biography: A Series of Authentic Biographical Sketches 
of the Representative Men of Vermont and Sons of Vermont in Other States. 
Dodge. Burlington: Ullery Publishing Company, 1912, p 124

Levi J. BOLSTER, business man, late of Barre [Vermont], was born 19 August 
1836 at Winhall [Bennington County, Vermont], son of Chapin and Rebecca 
(FRENCH) BOLSTER. Levi J. BOLSTER died on 22 December 1908 at Barre 
[Washington County, Vermont]. His education consisted of a few winter terms 
in the district school. His early life was spent in Winhall; when a mere lad 
he was bound out to service, but when seventeen years of age he had laid by 
$100 with which he purchased of his father the remaining years of his 
minority; as a farmer's helper he had worked for a time in Dummerston and 
subsequently in Brattleboro [both in Windham County, Vermont].

His first venture was traveling through Vermont on foot retailing sewing silk 
from house to house, and it was in this line he laid the foundation of his 
fortune; in 1860 he settled in Barre and entered into the wholesale end of 
the silk trade, investing his surplus earnings in real estate, in which his 
keen eye saw prospects of future development; retiring from the silk 
business, devoted his energies to real estate transactions, farming, 
establishing granite plants, and dealing in wood and coal on a large scale; 
among his valuable holdings late in life was a 300-acre farm on Barre Town 
hill, on which he had expended many thousands of dollars in buildings and 
roads.

In 1861 he [Levi J. BOLSTER] married [Miss?] Calista E. BOLSTER of Barre, who 
survives him; they had no children. Although a stanch Republican, he never 
aspired to political honors; was a promoter and organizer of the People's 
National Bank of Barre, and one of its directors until his death. A man of 
sterling integrity and rugged honesty, and, although a member of no religious 
society, a generous contributor to the support of all good work, particularly 
to the Universalist Church.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly